BLURB
Blaming the Catholic Church for the death of his wife, filmmaker Henry Hawkins is determined to make an exposé revealing the Church’s responsibility. Not divulging the true intentions of his documentary, Henry’s quest leads him to Rome where he’s promised access to the Vatican by its highest ranking cardinal, Silvio Contini, the Secretary of State of Vatican City.
After arriving in the Eternal City, Cardinal Contini reneges on his agreement to meet with Henry. Refusing to have his plan compromised, Henry devises a bold scheme to get behind the impregnable walls of the Vatican to confront Contini. However, when the pope suddenly dies a quirk of fate throws Henry into a whirlwind when he is isolated in the inner sanctum of the papal conclave where he covertly records the secret election process and clandestinely films Contini's unscrupulous method of eliminating papal candidates for his own agenda. Henry’s obsession to avenge the loss of his wife is put in jeopardy when his tapes are stolen and he discovers that if Contini is elected pope he will alter sacred Church doctrine, thereby destroying the meaning of his wife’s death and all that she believed in.
To prevent this, Henry must reclaim his tapes while ultimately deciding whether to smuggle them out of the conclave and use the information they reveal to make his documentary, or exploit them to the voting cardinals to stop Contini’s election thereby upholding the dignity of his wife’s beliefs.
ABOUT ME
PAUL CROSS is an award-winning screenwriter, actor, director and producer with many feature films including OPERATION TERROR,and SEVERE VISIBILITY, and television movies such as STUDS LONIGAN and AMAZONS to his credits. He is also the writer/director/producer of the award-winning documentaries, FOLLOW the LEADER and WEST END STORY. His novel A COUNTERFEIT PRIEST is the basis for his screenplay by the same title. Paul lives in Hollywood, California.
My Review:
This was a really interesting story about something a non-cardinal will ever know. The election of a Pope and the smoke is always something that has fascinated me. To think that there was a normal person that could record what was going on got me hooked to the story right away. The the author added a sub plot of what Henry's wife would have wanted. I have no idea what I would do, given the choice. I would like to think that I would help the most amount of people that I could, but I can not say for sure, and I will never know, because I can never be in the conclave. I would really enjoy seeing the screenplay of this story as well. I was also happy because the author kept true to The Vatican. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review from the author, however all opinions are my own.
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